In 2025, fire departments serving Orange responded to 31 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $400K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Vehicle accident, general cleanup lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 87% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
84 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $587K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 9 | — | |
| 2022 | 12 | — | |
| 2023 | 15 | +25.0% | |
| 2024 | 17 | +13.3% | |
| 2025 | 31 | +82.4% |
* Well below Orange's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 9 building fires Orange departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 9 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Storage area, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Exterior, exposed surface | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 11.1% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Orange mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 66.7% | |
| 2 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Match | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 11.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Orange departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Orange sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 844 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 137 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 120 | 14.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 72 | 30.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 54 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 50 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 47 | 15.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 40 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 35 | 31.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 27 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 22 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 19.8 mi |
Top 6 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Vermont cities with population within ±25% of Orange. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.